Conventionally, sanitary napkins and the like are known as absorbent articles that absorb fluid such as excreted fluid. These absorbent articles include, as a constituent component, an absorbent body that absorbs fluid. The absorbent body has a base material obtained by molding an absorbent-body material such as a pulp fiber into a predetermined shape.
Such an absorbent body is manufactured by a fiber depositing apparatus. The fiber depositing apparatus has a rotating drum that is driven to rotate. On an outer circumferential face of the rotating drum, recess molds are intermittently arranged at a predetermined arrangement pitch in the rotating direction. Then, absorbent bodies are produced by supplying the absorbent-body material from an appropriate duct toward the molds on the outer circumferential face of the rotating drum and depositing the absorbent-body material in the molds ([PTL 1]).